Dan Walters, CalMatters: The first thing to understand about San Francisco politics is with just 7.4 percent of its voters registered as Republicans, the city’s main players are self-proclaimed liberals – or “progressives” in the preferred nomenclature. The second thing, however, is that in San Francisco, politics is a blood sport and careers can be made or lost by even tiny conflicts of ideology, sexual orientation, ethnicity or personality.

Robert F. Sawyer and Jananne Sharpless: When Congress passed the Clean Air Act, it specifically recognized California’s right to protect its citizens with stronger standards on clean cars and trucks than federal ones. Now, that right is being threatened.

Take a number: $439,000

Yes, Doug Jones’ victory in the Alabama senate race is over. But because of the U.S. Senate’s refusal to require that candidates file their campaign finance reports online, Jones’ full report up to Nov. 22 wasn’t available at fec.gov until votes were being tallied last week.

That report showed Jones raised more than $4.5 million in donations of $200 or more in the 14 days after Nov. 9, the day the Washington Postpublished its blockbuster about Republican Roy Moore pursuing teenage girls as young as 14 when he was in his 30s. Moore raised $525,097 during that period.

In the 14 days before Nov. 9, Jones raised $1.6 million. Californians did their part to elect Jones, accounting for at least $820,000, including no less than $439,000 between Nov. 9 and Nov. 22.

Their take

Kansas City Star: This extraordinary editorial is about a hero who got murdered, and how bad state policy in Missouri allows guns to proliferate: After he jumped up and grabbed the wheel as a Metro driver suffered a seizure, they called him a hero on the evening news. “Daryl Singleton picked the right day to take an early bus to work,’’ the story that ran on the Metro front of The Star began, “and 13 other passengers are thankful he was there to aid them.” As Stephanie West said at Thursday’s candlelight vigil for her 57-year-old cousin, “it was a very big deal at the time.” Gun deaths, on the other hand, are not a very big deal at this time, or any other time in recent memory.

LA Times: California has set an ambitious target of reducing greenhouse gases 40 percent below their 1990 level by 2030. The state simply cannot reach that goal without a dramatic cut in emissions from cars and trucks, which are the largest source of greenhouse gases in the state. Increasing the number of electric cars on the road will help, but that alone won’t suffice. California communities have to be redesigned to make it easier for people to walk, bike or take transit. Changing the California Environmental Quality Act is an important step forward.

Daniel Borenstein, East Bay Times: CalPERS is about to bury taxpayers, cities and counties in more debt. The nation’s largest pension system is expected to adopt a funding plan this week that anticipates shortfalls during the next decade and then banks on exceptional investment returns over the following half century to make up the difference.

Syndicates’ take

Maureen Dowd: Hollywood was a warped society and everyone knew it. Gender stereotypes were enshrined in amber: Women can’t direct because it’s too risky to trust them with big budgets; they get too emotional; they only want to direct movies where people talk or, God forbid, cry; they don’t have the authority to come across as commanding generals. That’s why monsters were allowed to roam.

Ross Douthat: Foreign policy is the place where the risks of electing Donald Trump seemed to me particularly unacceptable, and I’ve tended to focus on narratives that fit that fear, from the risk of regional war in Middle East to the perils in our North Korean brinkmanship. Those fears are still reasonable. But all punditry is provisional, and for now, the Trump administration’s approach to the Middle East has been moderately successful.

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